Director of Licensing and Patent Counsel, La Terza heads the University's effort to protect and commercialize valuable research results produced by Emory faculty. La Terza works with Emory researchers whose work yields data or a product that has the potential for being patented and licensed to private industry for further development and marketing.
"What we are trying to achieve is the rapid commercialization of important technologies that can benefit people," said La Terza, an Emory law school graduate and patent attorney. "In addition, what will come as a consequence of that is economic development for Georgia's biotechnology industry, and more autonomy for Emory researchers, which is particularly critical."
Applying the results
of research
The necessity for an Office of Licensing and Patent Counsel (commonly
referred
to at many universities as an Office of Technology Transfer) can be
traced back
to 1980, when Congress passed the Bayh/Dole Act. Under this legislation,
universities and non-profit institutions that receive funding from the
federal
government are allowed to own the intellectual property and patent rights
to
any innovation or technology that is developed on their campuses. In
exchange
for that ownership, the law places the responsibility for protecting and
commercializing that technology with the universities.
"The rationale behind this legislation," La Terza said, "was that prior to 1980 a lot of valuable technology was not being developed. The primary negative consequence of this was that the public was not obtaining access to these innovations. But there were other consequences, such as a failure of universities to be able to develop alternative sources of revenue to fund their research."
When an Emory investigator approaches La Terza's office with a potentially patentable product, the staff helps navigate the investigator through the patent filing process and puts the investigator in contact with a private company (or someone interested in forming a private company) that wants to develop and market the product. Emory retains ownership of the patent, and a contractual agreement with the company provides for royalties from future sales to be paid to the University and, through it, to the investigator.
Emory's greatest successes in transferring research technology to the private sector, La Terza said, have come in the areas of nucleosides (a family of compounds that includes the AIDS-fighting drug AZT), and imaging software that is used in a process called SPECT imaging, which analyzes cardiac blood flow and allows physicians to compare blood profusion in cardiac patients with that of individuals with normal hearts.
In addition to transferring technology to large, well established companies, La Terza said that start-up companies are sometimes formed as the result of Emory research. La Terza works closely with organizations such as the Georgia Research Alliance, Alliance Technology Ventures and the Georgia Biomedical Partnership, which have been formed in recent years to help fund and nurture start-up companies, which in turn market the results of scientific research at Georgia universities. One such company, Athrogenics, was begun several months ago as the result of research in the lab of Wayne Alexander, director of the Division of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine, and cardiologist Russ Medford, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine. Their research focuses on molecular and genetic causes of cardiovascular disease.
La Terza, who reports to Vice President and General Counsel Joseph Crooks, said the technology transfer program is generating about $1.5 million to $2 million a year in revenue. La Terza believes the amount of revenue generated through his office will substantially increase in the years to come as Emory's research budget grows and more Emory investigators recognize the value of their intellectual property.
The power of serenity
A skillful negotiator with a genuine interest in science, La Terza is
described
by investigators who have worked with him in glowing terms. "He's a great
guy,"
said Dennis Liotta, professor and chair of the chemistry department. "He
has a
very nice personality. He projects a very reasonable, competent and
efficient
face to the world outside of the University. To have someone who does all
the
things that he does so well is a great asset to Emory."
Although he shuns any form of praise for himself and gives Emory investigators the bulk of the credit for the success of his program, La Terza admits that keeping cool is the key to getting his job done. "I think it's very good to have a calm temperament in this job," he said, "because we deal with very high-achieving and high-powered individuals, both on campus and in private companies. And often it's a new situation for the people who are involved. The investigator may not be familiar with what it's like to work with a company, or company officers may not immediately recognize the value of what you're offering."
Being able to work with scientists and play a role in bringing potentially life-saving inventions to the public is what La Terza finds most fulfilling about his job. "This is a great field for an attorney to be in," he said. "I don't know any attorney who is happier in his work than I am."
--Dan Treadaway